Reverend Anthony Mark Wallock was born in Austria and came with his parents to Chicago, Illinois, in 1892. He attended Evansville Academy and Chicago University, graduated from the Garrett Biblical Institute in Evansville, Illinois, and came to Wakita, Oklahoma, as a pastor in 1915.

In 1919 Rev. Wallock became the pastor of the Methodist Church at Crescent, Oklahoma, and finally settled in Lawton as the pastor of the First Congregational Church in 1924. He began the historic Wichita Mountains Easter sunrise services in 1927, which were first attended by 150 people and grew to “standing room only” in the years to come. After his death in 1948, Wallock’s services continued to grow and become one of the “biggest and most significant Easter sunrise pageants in the world.”